


Ancient History

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 05:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16299200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: Tiny fic prompt: someone in the Hoover sees Mulder kiss Scully on the forehead (no one is in peril). Season 11.





	Ancient History

If shadows were animals, the one just beyond the small coffee station on the basement floor would be a woolly mammoth; giant and ragged around the edges, ancient. He loves the way the cool settles around him, the way it climbs the sad-white walls, the way it holds onto the secrets of muted conversations.

Mulder has bent his head down to Scully’s hundreds of times in this shadow. Spoken taut lines to her. Shaken his head at her incredulity. Listened to her serious deliberations. Thwarted her attempts at reconciliation. Rolled his fingers around her shoulders as he spouted a wild theory. Redefined their partnership with a hand on her lower back. Run his thumbs over her lips. Held her quivering body as she collapsed into his arms after a hard case, a nosebleed, a failed IVF attempt, a revelation about their son.

In this prehistoric dark spot, they have argued, laughed, said nothing, revealed everything. Kissed. It’s been a lifetime of small moments knotted inside the bigger picture. And today, as they close the door to the office for the last time, he stands in the penumbra with Scully. There is no outward sign of the primordial miracle unfolding within her. He thinks about the ageless dividing of cells to create new life as they close the door on their old one. It makes him suddenly and unabashedly nostalgic. He stoops to kiss her. Right there in the mammoth-shadow, where he took chances before, where she rejected him or welcomed him, depending on her mood.

In the disc of light near the elevator, Skinner watches, not quite smiling. He’s been there for the duration. He’s as much an old fossil of the Hoover as they are. So of course, he would be there now. When the old guard slinks away, making room for evolutionary advances.

Mulder lifts a hand to acknowledge his presence and bends down for another kiss. Nobody will be able to recreate what they had. And he wraps an arm around Scully’s shoulder as he ushers her to the elevator, he feels the mammoth-shadow retreating behind them.


End file.
